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Mandel Memories: Self-Dealing Hires & Raises To Political Cronies Draw Criticism

As Treasurer, Mandel Hired His Inexperienced Campaign Staff To Manage Billions Of Ohio’s Tax Dollars — And Then Gave Them Bigger Raises Than Other Career Employees While Sending Them To Beginner’s Courses

As failed candidate and corrupt politician Josh Mandel attempts a third run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, we’re here to take you on another trip down memory lane as we review his biggest scandals. We’ve already covered his long history of shady campaign cash schemes and pay-to-play scandals, investigated a case of a missing Mandel — and in this week’s edition of Mandel Memories, we’re taking a look at his political cronyism as Ohio Treasurer.

A Dayton Daily News investigation in 2012 found that Mandel “hired young, relatively inexperienced staffers from his 2010 campaign and gave them high-ranking jobs in the state treasurer’s office” — something he’d promised not to do during his campaign for the job. But the cronyism didn’t stop there: according to the Toledo Blade, Mandel then gave his political appointees large raises while only providing “modest” raises to the office’s career public servants. Mandel’s political appointees received raises as high as $1,153 per two-week pay period. HuffPost also revealed that Mandel had dispatched a top aide in charge of debt management (who was also his political director on multiple campaigns) to a beginner’s course in the subject he was overseeing.

“Josh Mandel’s political cronyism knows no bounds, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to abuse his public office at the expense of Ohio taxpayers if it benefits himself or his political allies,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “As Treasurer, Josh Mandel immediately hired his inexperienced political staffers to manage billions of Ohio’s tax dollars and then gifted them massive taxpayer-funded raises, breaking his own pledge and shortchanging the hardworking public servants in the office in the process. Ohioans don’t have to wonder how unethical and untrustworthy Josh Mandel would be in the Senate, they just have to look at his record.”

Dayton Daily News: Treasurer Mandel under scrutiny for hiring practices

  • Republican Josh Mandel hired young, relatively inexperienced staffers from his 2010 campaign and gave them high-ranking jobs in the state treasurer’s office, a Dayton Daily News examination found.
  • Mandel repeatedly criticized Boyce for appointing politically connected people into key slots, and pledged to operate differently if elected to the office that oversees billions of dollars in investments and bond deals.
  • “Unlike the current officeholder, I will ensure that my staff is comprised of qualified financial professionals — rather than political cronies and friends — and that investment decisions are based on what is best for Ohioans,” Mandel said in October 2010 during his first statewide election.
  • To see if Mandel was fulfilling his pledge not to hire political friends the Daily News reviewed personnel files and other records from the treasurer’s office. The review showed that Mandel… also hired six campaign workers whose average age is 26 and assigned them duties ranging from debt management to policy-advising to community outreach.
  • Mandel, who is 34, picked as his new senior policy advisor 27-year-old Michael Lord, who was his campaign manager and, prior to that, legislative aide. Lord, who also served as a paid political consultant, earned $13.95 an hour as Mandel’s aide during his stint in the legislature. His new position has a salary of $100,000.
  • Many of those with campaign ties were given sizable raises to work in the treasurer’s office.

Toledo Blade: Raises by Mandel draw criticism

  • Josh Mandel, Ohio treasurer of state, has given his staff appointees large raises since he took office while awarding more modest raises to the employees he inherited when he became treasurer a year ago.
  • The analysis…adds to the Democrats’ portrayal of Mr. Mandel — the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate — as having filled jobs in his office with well-paid political “cronies.”
  • Six Mandel political appointees received raises ranging from $250 to $1,153 per two-week pay period since the time he took office.
  • In the same period, raises for the six highest-paid holdovers from former Democratic Treasurer Kevin Boyce ranged from $147 to $441 per pay period.
  • The biggest dollar-amount raise went to Mr. Mandel’s general counsel, Seth Metcalf. His salary zoomed to $5,961 per two-week pay period from $4,808, a 24 percent increase, after he joined the staff in January, 2011. According to Seth Unger, press secretary for Mr. Mandel, Mr. Metcalf also took on the job of chief financial officer, eliminating a position and saving $45,000 a year.
  • The Dayton Daily News reported on March 31 that Mr. Mandel hired young, relatively inexperienced staffers from his 2010 campaign and gave them high-ranking jobs in the state treasurer’s office after accusing his 2010 opponent, Mr. Boyce, of the same practice and promising not to do it himself.

HuffPost: Josh Mandel, Ohio Treasurer, Sent Top Aide To Beginner’s Course

  • Days after being accused of hiring young, inexperienced staffers for key positions in the state Treasury, new evidence shows that Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican nominee for the state Senate race, dispatched a top aide to a beginner’s course in the subject he was overseeing.
  • A roster of attendees for a seminar on the fundamentals of municipal bond law, held at the April 2011 National Association of Bond Lawyers, shows that Joe Aquilino — Mandel’s debt management director at the time — attended the conference. The seminar is tailored for those new to the subject.
  • Aquilino, 26, had been the political director for Mandel’s 2010 campaign for treasurer before being tapped to oversee Ohio’s debt management, including issuing new bonds and working with the state’s investment underwriters. Aquilino has since left that position to serve as political director for Mandel’s Senate race against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
  • Wilson White, a municipal bond expert who spent more than 60 years purchasing bonds from U.S. states, including Ohio, said Aquilino’s qualifications are troubling. White also owned his own municipal bond house and has published several textbooks on the subject.
  • “Just let me say to be a director of finance of a major state at 26 in highly unusual,” White said. “I know of no parallel example that I’ve come across in all my 60 years of municipal bond experience. I just find it hard to believe.”
  • When asked about Aquilino’s experience and his position working for Mandel in the Treasury and now for Mandel’s Senate campaign, White said, “It sounds like pure patronage to me, and if it were in my state I’d be ashamed of it.”

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